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be: if it is true, every honest man will want to believe it, even

if it gives him no help at all.

As soon as we have realised this, we realise something else.

If Christianity should happen to be true, then it is quite im-

possible that those who know this truth and those who don't

shou ld be equally well equipped for leading a good life. Knowl-

edge of the facts must make a difference to one's actions.

Suppose you found a man on the point of starvation and

wanted to do the right thing. If you had no knowledge of

medical science, you would probably give him a la rge solid

meal; and as a result your man would die. That is what comes

of working in the dark. In the same way a Christian and a

non-Christian may both wish to do good to their fel low men.

The one believes that men are going to live for ever, that

they were created by God and so built that they can find

their true and lasting happiness only by being united to God,

that they have gone badly off the rails, and that obedient faith

in Christ is the only way back. The other believes that men

are an accidental result of the blind workings of matter, that

they started as mere animals and have more or less s teadily

improved, that they are going to live for about seventy years,

that their happiness is ful1y attainable by good social services

and political organisations, and that everything else (e.g.,

vivisection, birth-control, the judicial system, education) is to

be judged to be 'good' or 'bad' simply in so far as it helps

or hinders that kind of 'happiness'.

Now there are quite a lot of things which these two men

could agree in doing for their fellow citizens. Both would

approve of efficient sewers and hospitals and a healthy diet.

But sooner or later the difference of their beliefs would pro-

duce differences in their practical proposals. Both, for example,

might be very keen about education: but the kinds of educa-

tion they wanted people to have would obviously be very

different. Again, where the Materialist would simply ask about

a proposed action 'Will it increase the happiness of the ma-

jority?', the Christian might have to say, 'Even if it does in-

crease the happiness of the majority, we can't do it. It is

unjust.' And all the time, one great difference would run

through their whole policy. To the Materialist things like na-

tions, classes, civilizations must be more important than in-

dividuals, because the individuals live only seventy odd years

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MAN OR RABBIT?

CAN T YOU LEAD A GOOD LIFE WITHOUT BELIEVING IN

Christianity?' This is the question on which I have been asked

to write, and straight away, before I begin trying to answer

it, I have a comment to make. The question sounds as if it

were asked by a person who said to himself, 'I don't care

whether Christianity is in fact true or not. I'm not interested

in finding out whether the real universe is more like what

the Christians say than what the Materialists say. All I'm

interested in is leading a good life. I'm going to choose beliefs

not because I think them true but because I find them helpful.'

Now frankly, I find it hard to sympathise with this state of

mind. One of the things that distinguishes man from the

other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find

out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When

that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has

become something less than human. As a matter of fact, I

don't believe any of you have really lost that desire. More

probably, foolish preachers, by always telling you how much

Christianity will help you and how good it is for society, have

actually led you to forget that Christianity is not a patent

medicine. Christianity claims to give an account of f ts -to

tell you what the real universe is like. Its account of the universe

may be true, or it may not, and once the question is really

before you, then your natural inqui si tiveness must make you

want to know the answer. If Christianity is untrue, then no

honest man will want to believe it, however helpful it might

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MAN OR RABBIT?

me safe and blameless without knocking at that dreadful door

and making sure whether there is, or isn't someone inside?'

To such a man it might be enough to reply that he is really

asking to be allowed to get on with being 'good' before he

has done his best to discover what

goo

means. But that is

not the whole story. We need not inquire whether God will

punish him for his cowardice and laziness; they will punish

themselves. The man is shirking. He is deliberately trying not

to know whether Christianity is true or false, because he

foresees endless trouble if it should turn out to be true. He

is like the man who deliberately 'forgets' to look at the notice

board because, if he did, he might find his name down for

some unpleasant duty. He is like the man who won't look at

his bank account because he's afraid of what he might find

there. He is like the man who won't go to the doctor when

he first feels a mysterious pain, because he is afraid of what

the doctor may tell him.

The man who remains an unbeliever for such reasons is

not in a state of honest error. He is in a state of dishonest

error, and that dishonesty will spread through all his thoughts

and actions: a certain shiftiness, a vague worry in the back-

ground, a blunting of his whole mental edge, will result. He

has lost his intellectual virginity. Honest rejection of Christ,

however mistaken, will be forgiven and healed - 'Whosoever

shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven

him.' But to ev e the Son of Man, to look the other way,

to pretend you haven't noticed, to become suddenly absorbed

in something on the other side of the street, to leave the

receiver off the telephone because it might be He who was

ringing up, to leave unopened certain letters in a strange hand-

writing bcause they might be from Him - this is a different

matter. You may not be certain yet whether you ought to

be a Christian; but you do know you ought to be a Man,

not an ostrich, hiding its head in the sand.

But still - for intellectual honour has sunk very low in

our age - I hear someone whimpering on with his question,

'Will it help me? Will it make me happy? Do you really think

I'd be better if I became a Christian?' Well, if you must have

it, my answer is 'Yes.' But I don't like giving an answer at

all at this stage. Here is a door, behind which, according to

Luke xii 10

each and the group may last for centuries. But to the Christian,

individuals are more important, for they live eternally; and

races, civilizations and the like, are in comparison the crea-

tures of a day.

The Christian and the Materialist hold different beliefs about

the universe. They can't both be right. The one who is wrong

will act in a way which simply doesn't fit the real universe.

Consequently, with the best will in the world, he will be

helping his fellow creatures to their destruction.

With the best will in the world ... then it won't be his fault.

Surely God (if there is a God) will not punish a man for

honest mistakes? But was

tht

all you were thinking about?

Are we ready to run the risk of working in the dark all our

lives and doing infinite harm, provided only someone will

assure us that our own skins will be safe, that no one will

punish us or blame us? I will not believe that the reader

is quite on that level. But even if he were, there is something

to be said to him.

The question before each of us is not 'Can someone lead

a good life without Christianity?' The question is, 'Can I

W,e all know there have been good men who were not Chris-

tians; men like Socrates and Confucius who had never heard

of it, or men like J S. Mill who quite honestly couldn't be-

lieve it. Supposing Christianity to be true, these men were in

a state of honest ignorance or honest error. If their intentions

were as good as I suppose them to have been (for of course

I can't read their secret hearts) I hope and believe that the

skill and mercy of God will remedy the evils which their

ignorance, left to itself, would naturally produce both for

them and for those whom they influenced. But the man who

asks me, 'Can't I lead a good life without believing in Chris-

tianity?' is clearly not in the same position. If he hadn't heard

of Christianity he would not be asking this question. If, having

heard of it, and having seriously considered it, he had de-

cided that it was untrue, then once more he would not be

asking the question. The man who asks this question has heard

of Christianity and is by no means certain that it may not be

true. He is really asking, 'Need I bother about it? Mayn't I

just evade the issue, just let sleeping dogs lie, and get on

with being good? Aren't good intentions enough to keep

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some people, the secret of the universe is waiting for you.

Either that's true, or it isn't. And if it isn't, then what the

door really conceals is simply the greatest fraud, the most

colossal 'sell' on record. Isn't it obviously the job of every

man (that is a man and not a rabbit) to try to find out which,

and then to devote his full energies either to serving this

tremendous secret or to exposing and destroying this gigantic

humbug? Faced with such an issue, can you really remain

wholly absorbed in your own blessed 'moral development'?

All right, Christianity will do you good - a great deal more

good than you ever wanted or expected. And the first bit of

good it will do you is to hammer into your head (you won't

enjoy that the fact that what you have hitherto called 'good'

- all that about 'leading a decent life' and 'being kind'-

isn't quite the magnificent and all-important affair you sup-

posed. It will teach you that in fact you can't be 'good' (not

for twenty-four hours) on your own moral efforts. And then

it will teach you that even if you were, you still wouldn't

have achieved the purpose for which you were created. Mere

morality

is not the end of life. You were made for something

quite different from that. J S. Mill and Confucius (Socrates

was much nearer the reality) simply didn't know what life

is about. The people who keep on asking if they can't lead

a decent life without Christ, don't know what life is about;

if they did they would know that 'a decent life' is mere ma-

chinery compared with the thing we men are really made for.

Morality is indispensable: but the Divine Life, which gives

itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us

something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are

to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear - the wor-

ried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and

sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of

fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath

it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an

ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful,

and drenched in joy.

'When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in

part shall be done away. The idea of reaching 'a good life'

without Christ is based on a double error. Firstly, we cannot

do it; and secondly, in setting up 'a good life' as our final

I Cor xiii 10

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MAN OR RABBIT?

goal, we have missed the very point of our existence. Morality

is a mountain which we cannot climb by our own efforts; and

if we could we should only perish in the ice and unbreathable

air of the summit, lacking those wings with which the rest of

the journey has to be accomplished. For it is from the re that

the real ascent begins. The ropes and axes are 'done away'

and the rest is a matter of flying.

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